Background. Goal congruity for CS (i.e., perceptions of what types of personal goals CS affords compared to the types one endorses) can drive students’ intent to pursue CS both in K-12 classrooms and beyond high school. However, goal congruity has, to date, not been sufficiently explored among middle and high school students within a CS context.

Research Questions. 1) Do students’ perceived goal affordances related to CS predict their intentions to pursue a CS job above and beyond their prior CS experience, gender, race/ethnicity, and support for learning differences status? 2) Do students’ agentic goal endorsements predict their intentions to pursue a CS job above and beyond their prior CS experience, gender, race/ethnicity, and support for learning differences status, and if so, is this moderated by their perceptions of agentic goal affordances provided by CS? 3) Does gender moderate the relationship between students’ perceptions of goal affordances provided by CS and their intentions to pursue a CS job?

Methodology. We used a cross-sectional survey to collect data focused on communal and agentic goal affordances for CS, communal and agentic goal endorsements, intentions to pursue a CS job, and prior experience learning CS in school. Participants (𝑛 = 207) included middle school students (𝑛 = 100) and high school students (𝑛 = 107). We conducted moderated multiple regression to answer our three research questions.

Key Findings. Results indicated that students’ agentic goal affordances for CS (i.e., the extent to which they viewed CS jobs as allowing them to pursue self-oriented personal goals) was the strongest predictor of their intentions to pursue a CS job after high school, and students’ personal endorsements of agentic goals did not affect this predictive relationship. We also found that male students rated their intentions to pursue a CS job significantly higher than female students, controlling for all other factors. Finally, students’ prior experiences with CS, race/ethnicity, or need for support due to learning differences did not predict their intentions above and beyond gender and agentic goal affordances.

Implications. Middle and high school students’ intentions to pursue a CS job depend on their perceptions of CS as a job and their gender. Students who view CS as allowing them to pursue agentic goals (e.g., autonomy, achievement, receiving recognition for their work) and who are male report higher intentions to pursue a CS job after high school.